MUSIC 'BOUNTY HUNTER' LUKE EDDINS SCOURS CDS LOOKING FOR FEATURE FILM SOUNDTRACKS.

Byline: Greg Hernandez Staff Writer

``Kangaroo Jack'' and ``A Guy Thing,'' two of the new movies hitting theaters today, have an unlikely link: the musical ear of an energetic, self-described ``song bounty hunter'' named Luke Eddins.

Eddins, 27, discovered a song by unknown bluegrass musician Ivan Rosenberg that plays in the background of a scene in ``Jack,'' while the edgy, pop-rock song ``Walkin' In A Video'' by the Los Angeles band Strange Radio is featured in the advertising spots for ``Guy.''

A year ago, Eddins formed Luke Hits, a fledgling company that connects the music of unknown bands to film music supervisors who might be looking for an inexpensive tune for a scene and don't want to pay a high-profile artist up to six figures.

``I saw that maybe there was a niche there so I began sitting down and weeding through all the clutter out there from unknown bands and pulling out the diamonds from the rough,'' he said. ``The music editors are swamped and need someone to rescue them from the stacks of CDs.''

Luke Hits, which Eddins operates out of his Los Angeles apartment, has been in business since last February but really took flight when Eddins got a call from (composer/producer) Hans Zimmer's company, which was searching for a song with a Smashing Pumpkins vibe for a funeral scene in its horror flick ``The Ring,'' to be released by DreamWorks.

Eddins spent the day searching for something and at midnight, drove to Zimmer's offices with a customized CD in hand with three songs on it that he thought might fit the bill. One of them was ``Hey John,'' a song by The Austin, Texas-based rock and pop band WideAwake.

``He called and said, 'Hey look, there's a thing that could happen with 'The Ring' and sure enough it happened - the song got in,'' said the band's manager, Lott Shudde. ``He's out to kind of help the underdog band and it's great for a band like WideAwake. Talk about a shot in the arm!''

The band had released two CDs, which had combined sales of 25,000 copies, and are established enough to be able to tour around the country full time. But the association with ``The Ring'' has provided invaluable exposure as the film became a surprise box office sensation, grossing more than $130 million at the box office.

``The exposure is unbelievable,'' Shudde said. ``It's fantastic to tell our fans, Hey, go check 'The Ring' out, we're in it. Luke is the reason we got any of this. This guy gets results, he's a go-getter and gets it done. He's one to watch.''

For the ``Kangaroo Jack'' job, Eddins spent an entire weekend looking for a bluegrass tune that would be played on a juke box during a bar scene in an Australian bar. He was surfing through the Web site garageband.com when he found an instrumental song called ``The Lost Coast'' by Rosenberg, a 31-year-old musician based in Missoula, Mont.

``The process of getting the song in the movie was easy on my part,'' Rosenberg said. ``It's very exciting that Luke takes the time to do the research. It's very serendipitous.''

Eddins eschews formal contracts. He prefers what he calls the ``honor policy,'' where the band agrees to give him a percentage of the placement fee. The contract is between the artist and the filmmaker and any future royalties go entirely to the musicians.

Eddins had played in garage bands in high school, covering everything from Pearl Jam to Metallica. While attending the University of Virginia, where he double-majored in sociology and German, he continued to dabble with a band.

But he was bitten early by the entrepreneurial bug. Eddins and a buddy started a small, outdoor-clothing business that would sell merchandise to retailers like REI. He honed his business skills by working in the marketing division at Tiffany & Co.'s corporate offices, then came to Los Angeles two years ago to work for a now-defunct dot-com company.

``The one thing I took away from the dot-com experience was to keep costs bare-bones,'' Eddins said. ``My biggest bill is my DSL.''

After the dot-com experience, Eddins decided to concentrate full time on making music with his acoustic duo, The Luke and Chris Band, which played at such Los Angeles venues as Sunset Boulevard's Roxy and the Whiskey.

``I was trying to make it as a musician but I realized it wasn't what I was meant to do and I really missed the business side of things,'' he said.

Eddins was able to get some minor press attention for his duo, but his short-lived gig as full-time musician made him realize how difficult it can be for unknown bands to promote their music.

``It's like a game of Monopoly: You're trying to get to Boardwalk but you find yourself stuck on Mediterranean Avenue,'' he said.

Eddins began to educate himself on how filmmakers select music for their movies, a process he found to be totally random and somewhat flawed. He wondered why there wasn't anyone searching for music on a grass-roots level, the way casting directors might audition unknown actors for a part.

``I thought I could save them a ton of time, the same way a casting director saves time for a director,'' Eddins said. ``The coolest part of my job is when I break the news that the studio is faxing over the licensing agreement. People are floored. Not only are they going to get some money to help their career, they are going to get exposure.''

In addition to the recent movies, Eddins has landed songs by unknown bands on a television trailer for the video release of ``Spy Kids 2'' and for television projects for NBC, ESPN and Lifetime.

``It's a dream job,'' Eddins said. ``I can't imagine anything more fun than building relationships, listening to music and looking for those diamonds.''

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Luke Eddins started a company that finds music from unknown musicians for feature films and television, including current releases ``Kangaroo Jack'' and ``The Ring.''

(2) Luke Eddins sorts through some of the hundreds of CDs sent to him from a variety of musicians. Eddins helps secure the rights to songs for use in feature films and television.

John McCoy/Staff Photographer